Minions

Thundercat Shares A Warped Cover Of ‘Fly Like An Eagle’ For The ‘Minions 2’ Soundtrack

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The soundtrack to Minions: The Rise Of Gru is out today, which has Phoebe Bridgers covering The Carpenters, HER covering Sly And The Family Stone, St. Vincent covering Lipps Inc., Kali Uchis covering Stan Getz And João Gilberto, and Tame Impala and Diana Ross contributing a new song.

Along with these gems, there’s also Thundercat taking on “Fly Like An Eagle,” originally by Steve Miller Band. The idiosyncratic musician does what one would expect — he makes the song weirder and woozier. It’s full of sparkling synths and warped bass, but his vocals are clean, guiding the track forward. It ends by slowly fading away into echoes.

Last month, he shared a collaboration with Gorillaz for “Cracker Island,” about which the Gorillaz virtual band member 2D said, “It’s nice to be back, I’m well into our new tune, it brings back weird and scary memories of stuff that hasn’t happened yet.” The narrative of the tune was explained as “the world’s biggest virtual band have relocated to Silverlake, California where it turns out that the answer to life’s question — the one truth to fix the world — is to invite fans to join ‘The Last Cult,’ with Murdoc as its self-appointed Great Leader.”

Listen to Thundercat’s cover of “Fly Like An Eagle” above.

HER Covers Sly And The Family Stone’s ‘Dance To The Music’ For The Latest ‘Minions’ Soundtrack

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If you engage with pop culture on any level at all, you likely know that there’s a new Minions movie on the way. While your reception of this news largely depends on how you feel about the Minions as characters — and whether or not you have kids, the determining factor in how likely you are to end up in a movie theater to see the little yellow creatures on July 1 — there is one universal good that comes with the new film: Its soundtrack.

For whatever reason, the Despicable Me cinematic universe has always had absolutely stellar music. While some of that music gets run into the ground — even Pharrell got sick of “Happy” — Illumination, the studio behind Gru and his gibberish-speaking allies, undoubtedly churns out banger after banger for their films from covers to original songs.

This is, in part, because they secure some great collaborators for them. While Pharrell worked on the soundtrack for Despicable Me 2, the soundtrack for Minions: The Rise Of Gru is produced by Jack Antonoff, featuring contemporary artists covering 1970s soul, funk, and pop hits. The latest one to surface is a cover of Sly And The Family Stone’s signature hit “Dance To The Music” performed by the multitalented HER.

Listen to HER’s cover of Sly And The Family Stone’s “Dance To The Music” above. The full soundtrack, which also features Brittany Howard, Brockhampton, Caroline Polachek, Diana Ross, Gary Clark Jr., Jackson Wang, Kali Uchis, RZA, St. Vincent, Tierra Whack, and Thundercat, is also out on 7/1 via Decca and Verve.

Tame Impala And Diana Ross ‘Turn Up The Sunshine’ In Their New Single From The ‘Minions 2’ Soundtrack

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The world was given yet another intergenerational fantasy collaboration today in the form of “Turn Up The Sunshine,” starring the legendary Diana Ross and multi-talented Tame Impala. The uplifting track is loaded with a myriad of instruments, a huge chorus, and an opportune, palpable brightness that is well-timed for the impending summer. The Sun reported on the record last fall after a conversation with someone from Ross’s team, and it is now known that “Turn Up The Sunshine” is the lead single from the upcoming soundtrack for Minions: The Rise Of Gru.

“Turn Up The Sunshine” features songwriting contributions from Jack Antonoff, who is responsible for producing the entire album, in addition to Sam Dew, Patrik Berger, and the man behind Tame Impala, Kevin Parker. The seventies-inspired soundtrack will also feature HER, Phoebe Bridgers, St. Vincent, Thundercat, RZA, and Caroline Polachek, some of which will be trying their hand at covering classic songs from the disco era.

This release follows Diana Ross’ 2021 album Thank You, the 25th in her catalog, lead by the single “I Still Believe.” Tame Impala released The Slow Rush B-Sides & Remixes in February of this year featuring Lil Yachty, Blood Orange, Maurice Fulton, and more.

Check out “Turn Up The Sunshine” above.

Eminem Acknowledges His Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction With Help From The Minions

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eminem peloton
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Earlier this month, it was announced that Eminem would be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He joins Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, Lionel Richie, Pat Benatar, Eurythmics, and Carly Simon as artists that will be inducted through the Performers category. After the announcement, The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s CEO Greg Harris praised Eminem during an interview with Taryn Daly of Audacy.

“For a lot of years people asked about hip hop,” he said. “He is the tenth artist to be sort of categorized that way. But you listen to his music, it is as hard-hitting and straight ahead as any metal song. It is right there. It is a chest punch with a message and with a power and with a rhythm and with a band.”

A few days after the inductees for the 2022 class were announced, we finally received a message from Eminem himself about the inclusion, and it couldn’t come in a more Eminem way. The rapper shared a cartoon image of himself standing in front of a bunch of Minions in between a message that read “The Minions congratulate Eminem. Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame 2022.”

Fans noticed that amongst the cast of Minions, there is a green one with an M on its chest and it looks extremely similar to an M&M (which is phonetically pronounced the same way as Eminem). As a result, many believe that Eminem is in some way involved in the upcoming Minions: Rise Of Guru movie which arrives in theatres on July 1. It’s also not the first time that Eminem has promoted the movie as he did so at the end of March with a trailer that featured “Lose Yourself” playing in the background.

You can view Eminem’s tweet above.